Gubernatorial candidate Jim Burns, who as U.S. attorney prosecuted public officials for participating in government payroll scams, plans Thursday to call for a ban on state legislators holding other government jobs.
Burns, a Democrat, plans to propose a state law that would end the long tradition of “double-dipping” by members of the General Assembly. The move follows revelations that one lawmaker Burns prosecuted for allegedly participating in a ghost-payrolling scheme, Rep. Miguel Santiago (D-Chicago), recently landed another government job in Rosemont.
Santiago, facing trial on charges alleging that he was paid $148,000 by the Cook County treasurer’s office for work he never did, was hired by Rosemont Mayor Donald E. Stephens as the village’s $5,000-a-month liaison with its tiny Hispanic community. Santiago is to start his new job this month.
“Double-dipping by legislators creates too many conflicts of interest,” Burns said. While not mentioning Santiago by name, he added: “Legislators should not try to leverage their positions into a second paycheck at government expense.”
Burns will stop short of calling for a total ban on outside employment for legislators, though aides say he still is considering advancing such a proposal. A total ban would require making the jobs of Illinois’ 177 state representatives and senators full-time. That, in turn, would likely require substantial increases in their pay, which starts at $48,403.
Burns’ stand is his most overt effort to parlay the corruption-busting reputation he earned as Chicago’s U.S. attorney into momentum for a gubernatorial campaign that some Democrats say is floundering.
He is trying to make up ground lost earlier this week when Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, once thought to be backing Burns, aided one of Burns’ opponents for the Democratic nomination, U.S. Rep. Glenn Poshard of Downstate Marion.
Burns is alone in supporting even a partial ban on outside employment for lawmakers.
None of his three Democratic opponents–Poshard, former Atty. Gen. Roland Burris and Chicago attorney John Schmidt–nor presumptive GOP gubernatorial nominee George Ryan is proposing anything similar, even though all are advancing ethics-reform packages as part of their campaigns.
Burris said through a spokesman that he would support such a ban only if lawmakers themselves propose and pass it. Schmidt said he would support an employment ban for executive-branch employees, but not lawmakers.
“I don’t think it’s realistic at this point unless you’re willing to raise their pay,” said Schmidt, echoing the sentiments of other candidates. “I’m not prepared to support an increase in the salaries of state legislators.”
If lawmakers are barred from holding other government jobs, Schmidt said, police officers, teachers and others may not be allowed to hold legislative office.
Ninety-six of the 177 members of the General Assembly have outside jobs in the public or private sectors. The rest say they are full-time lawmakers, even though the job is supposed to be part-time. On the Chicago City Council, only 15 of 48 part-time aldermen in office in October said they had outside jobs.
Following a string of scandals over the past year that only fueled voter distrust in government on the eve of critical 1998 elections, officials in Chicago and Springfield scrambled to portray themselves as reformers of a system from which politicians have long benefited.
Mayor Richard Daley last fall unveiled an ethics-reform package in the wake of revelations that his City Council floor leader, Ald. Patrick Huels (11th), accepted a $1.25 million loan from a city contractor and that several of the mayor’s friends had made millions in no-bid city contracts. The council approved a watered-down version of the package in December.
In Springfield, where a state contract with Management Services of Illinois Inc. has spawned a series of fraud and bribery trials, reform packages were proposed this fall by Gov. Jim Edgar, House Republican Leader Lee Daniels of Elmhurst, and, for the first time, Madigan, a Southwest Side Democrat.
Edgar’s package, which, among other things, barred state employees who leave government service from immediately joining a private entity to lobby the state for business, was approved by the legislature. The rest died, as expected.
In all of those reform packages, though, no political leaders proposed making the jobs of alderman or state legislator full-time.
Ald. Joseph Moore (49th) proposed banning outside employment for aldermen, but said, “I don’t suffer any illusions that it will pass.”
It didn’t.
